Strife In The Sky (Book 7) (13 page)

“They are,” Bayzog said. “They’re just testy around strangers.”

“Are you jesting, Wizard?”

“It’s not a normal thing for me, but it’s been known to happen.”

“Heh,” Otter Bone chuckled. “You might have made for good River Folk in more peaceful times.” He laid a hand on Bayzog’s shoulder. “I apologize for making you sick, Bayzog.”

Bayzog could sense the man’s sincerity, but he was still uneasy. Otter Bone knew things, and by and large, sages weren’t trustworthy. They considered themselves servants of the world more than champions for good over evil. They were known to align themselves with whichever side suited them at the moment.

“No need to apologize. I’m sure you did what you felt you had to do.”

“I did.”

“Well, no, you didn’t. There is often more than one way to achieve a common goal, if indeed the goal is common.”

“You wouldn’t have made it,” Otter Bone hissed, shaking his head. “I have seen it.”

“Are your visions always right?”

Otter Bone shrugged.

“I’ve never known one to be wrong so far.”

Brenwar kicked a wine casket farther down the cave, sat down, and sulked in gloom.

Bayzog left it at that. He’d already discussed Otter Bone’s visions with the sage and Brenwar. It didn’t sit well with him. It didn’t seem possible that Nath would be safer without them.
Certainly, a formidable party of many is better than a party of one?
He’d give it some time for now. Otter Bone had his ways, and he had his own.
Nath at least needs to know that I am all right.

Hours had passed when Brenwar stirred. Figures entered the darkness of the cave. The outline of Horse Neck’s burly form took shape. A moment later, Ben appeared. He shoved his way past Horse Neck and came right at Otter Bone.

“Don’t trust this lying old man!” Ben said, holding his bound wrists in front of Brenwar. “He’s a deceiver!”

Brenwar slit the cords on Ben’s wrists and said, “We’ve established that much.”

Ben poked Otter Bone in the chest.

“He’s treacherous—
ulp
!”

Horse Neck wrapped his big arms around Ben’s wide shoulders and squeezed.

“Don’t ever touch my father—
Ow
!”

Ben drove his boot into Horse Neck’s shin. The goon’s arms slackened. In a flash, Ben grabbed him by the arm, twisted his hips under him, and flipped him over his shoulder, where the brute landed hard on the ground. Ben’s fist pounded on Horse Neck’s ribs.

Jab! Jab! Jab!

Slobbering cries of anger came from the man’s mouth.

“You’ll pay! You’ll pay!”

Ben locked him up in an arm bar and applied pressure.

“OOOOW!”

“What was that?” Ben said, twisting harder. “Are you calling for your cows?”

“OOOOOW!”

“Stop this!” Bayzog said, rising to his feet. “His cries will carry to the town.”

Ben snarled and released the man. Brenwar gave him an approving nod. Horse Neck moaned and pushed himself up from the stone floor of the cave. His heavy eyes glared at Ben.

“Let it go, Nephew,” Otter Bone said, “Let it go.”

Horse Neck rose up, spat dirt from his mouth, and lumbered out of the cave.

“He’s protective,” Otter Bone said, staring blankly at Ben, “and he’s not such a bad man, most of the time.”

“Do you care to tell me what is going on?” Ben said to Bayzog, wiping the dirt from his elbows. “Where’s Dragon?”

While a pair of Otter Bone’s henchmen brought in some rations, Bayzog filled Ben in on the details. Ben’s brow stayed furrowed the entire time, and his glare remained hot on Otter Bone.

“We should be done with this sage,” Ben said, scooping Akron up from its spot alongside Brenwar’s chest. “You can’t trust a thing he says. They stuck me in a hole, Bayzog. A dirt hole with a wooden crate and ratty carpet over it.

“It was for your protection,” Otter Bone said. “You were a danger to yourself and others. Whose idea was it to send this man into the River Cities with aversion balm on him?”

“It worked!”

“Hah,” Otter Bone said. “It did no such thing. The overseers of Barnabus have eyes and ears on everything. They would have sniffed you out soon enough. I saved you from a certain doom. All of you.”

“You keep saying that,” Brenwar said with his mouth stuffed with jerky, “But I don’t believe a word of it.” He took a slug of wine from a bottle the henchmen had brought. “But this wine is not so horrible.” He shared the bottle with Ben, who shared it with Bayzog, who took a sip.

“Not so bad,” the wizard said. “Not elven, but not so bad at all.”

“Good that you think so,” Otter Bone said. “It should ease your minds and settle your bones. We’ve a long wait ahead.”

“Nath Dragon moves fast,” Ben said, rummaging through the rations and grabbing a clay jug of water. “He’ll be back tomorrow. You’ll see.”

“I wish I did see,” Otter Bone said, his voice low and eerie. “I don’t see anything, but I’m certain of this. His journey into the Floating City, it won’t be over in a day. It will take many days, if not weeks.”

Ben dropped the clay jug onto the ground, where it shattered with a crash.

“What!”

CHAPTER 30

Nath jerked away.

“Argh!”

A claw snapped down on his arm with the power of an iron trap. A dragon had a hold of him.

Nath drew his free arm back and socked it in the ribs. The dragon shook him like a rag, slamming his head into the stone. Bright spots of light burst in his eyes, and blood trickled down his scalp, over his nose. He eyed the creature.

A spiny-backed crawler. Cripes!

Half the size of Nath, its burgeoning abdomen dragged over the stone as it tried to sling him back and forth. With a neck thick as a tree trunk, its snout was long and wide. It had four short legs with six claws each, and its sandstone-colored wings were clawed as well. More like a lizard, no horns adorned its wide flat head. Rows of small spikes covered its back, which looked glassy in the sunlight.

“Let go!” Nath said, punching it again.

It shook him like a dog tearing away a bone.

Eyes watering, Nath held back his cry and drew back his fist once more.

The spiny back’s eyes followed the move. Jaws locked, its thin lips curled up over its sharp teeth. It rumbled a growl.

“Great Dragons!”

Spiny-backed crawlers—a smallish breed—tended to hide along riverbanks and dry stretches of land. They liked to dig and tunnel. Patient, they’d wait for their prey from beneath the grit and strike quicker than a flying arrow. Once their jaws locked, there was no unlocking them unless their prey killed them.

Nath tried to dash the sweat out of his eyes by blinking. He shook his head, looked deep into the dragon’s eyes, and spoke in Dragonese to it.

“Release me.”

The dragon bit down harder.

Nath’s tongue clove to the roof of his mouth. The dragon was moments away from taking his arm off at the elbow. Spiny-backs’ teeth were some of the hardest and sharpest of them all. They could bite through steel with them.

Think, Nath Dragon, Think!

The dragon shook its thick neck again.

Nath heard Fang rattle on his back. With his good arm, he reached back and slipped Dragon Claw out of the hilt. He waved the glimmering blade in front of the dragon’s watching eyes.

“Don’t make me use this,” he said in Dragonese. If he had to kill a dragon to save Bayzog, then so be it. Blood racing, he drew Dragon Claw back. “I’ll do what I must do.”

Its jaws bit deeper.

Nath groaned, brought the dagger down, and stopped inches from its back. He eyed its wings. One dangled on its side, broken. The other, hemmed into its side, was fine. It fluttered a bit and stopped. Nath jabbed Dragon Claw into the rock.

“Your eyes, tail and wings,” he said, swallowing, “they aren’t darkened.” He reached over and stroked its broken wing.

The dragon jerked a little.

Nath sucked through his teeth and said in more Dragonese, “Easy … friend.” He inspected the wing more. It had been gnawed up, and the joint between the wing and back was broken. It would take a long time to heal. Flying dragons without their wings were not only vulnerable but insecure as well. Ignoring the pain exploding in his head, he stroked the dragon over the eyes. “Who did this to you?”

The scaly brows on the dragon lifted up toward the city in the sky.

“I see,” Nath said, looking up and around, not forgetting the hornets and dragons were still in chase. “Great.” He took a seat on his rump, with the dragon attached to his forearm. It seemed that along with its injury, the spiny-back had received new orders. Another dragon must have flown down and ordered it to guard the pass over the rock with its life. Nath stroked its eyes again. A blast of smoke came from its nostrils. “Despite your effort to detach my arm from my elbow, I do consider this good fortune. Your bite is far less revealing than your lack of roar. If you’d roared, dragons certainly would have swarmed me.”

The spiny-backed dragon’s eyes remained intent on his, fierce and unblinking.

Alright, Nath Dragon, there’s no time for this. All those dragons will return soon enough. What options do you have?
He eyed Dragon Claw.
If I must, I must.
He peered over the rock. He could always plunge into the river waters below and hope to shake the dragon off. Perhaps then it would let go.

“That’s your stupidest idea ever, Nath Dragon!”

Great. Now I’m talking to myself.

At the moment, he was at the mercy of the dragon. He wasn’t going anywhere. He closed his eyes and sighed. Suddenly, he heard his father’s voice speaking inside his head.

Sometimes compassion can be a friend to your enemies.

His head snapped up.

“Father?”

He searched the skies. The clouds. Only the wind howling through the rocks answered. He looked at the dragon and said, “Did you hear that?”

The dragon didn’t move. Nath had chills on his neck, and it felt like the scales on his arms stood up. As much as he had dreaded his father’s throne-shaking voice in the past, he longed for it now.

Perhaps I’m just recalling something I’ve long forgotten.

He patted the dragon. Rubbed the scales around its neck in the tender spots they enjoyed. Even dragons had places they couldn’t scratch that itched. He heard a growl and stopped.

“Was that your belly?”

The heavy belly rumbled and groaned.

“My, you’ve been up here awhile. Years perhaps, judging by that moan.” Nath’s brows buckled. A fire ignited inside and drowned out the piercing pain in his arm. “Whoever did this is a cruel master.” He thought of the poachers. The hunt. The chase. For more than a hundred years, he had protected the dragons. Freed them from bondage. Freed them from chains. He felt ashamed. He’d lost sight of that somehow in the greater scheme of things.

“You know where you belong?”

It didn’t answer.

“Dragon Home,” he said, but in Dragonese. A lengthy and exotic name that had more bends than a river and syllables only heard in dreams.

A wink of golden light zipped high overhead. The sleek silhouette of a dragon streaked right behind it. Nath’s fingertips tingled. The chase of the golden hornets was almost over.

“Please let me go,” he urged.

The dragon’s eyes were stone cold.

“Ah, moving a mountain would be easier. Great Dragons!”

He looked at the next floating stone he needed to leap upon along his path to the Floating City. It didn’t look so bad. Perhaps this was the breaking point. The place no other had ever gotten past.

“Fine then,” Nath said to the dragon. With his good arm, he scooped up the spiny-backed dragon and pulled him to his chest. The dragon remained still as a steel trap. It was awkward. Like carrying a big scaly dog.

“Gads, I’m strong! You must weigh over two hundred pounds.”

He eyed the next rock, floating fifteen feet away and five feet up. Nath gathered his legs underneath him and leapt. A second later, he landed and slid on the stone. The rock teetered. Nath flailed his good arm for balance and righted himself.

“Whew! I have this now … I think.”

He made the next leap. Three. Five. Ten more. Bounded from stone to stone like a black-scaled frog. The Floating City greeted him. Stark and Vast. A mountain in the air. Nath felt small.
It’s much bigger up close.

Across one more chasm, a set of stairs was carved into the great rock, leading up into the city.
So this is a pathway, after all.
He judged the distance between him and the narrow steps on the other side. It was farther than it had looked from below, every bit of thirty feet. With a dragon latched onto his arm.

“This wouldn’t be hard if you just let go,” he said to the dragon. Its eyes were closed. “Enjoying the ride, are we?”

A chorus of roars echoed above in the towers of the city. The dragons were coming back from the chase. His mind raced, arguing with itself.

You have to do this, Dragon. You have to. But how? It’s too far. This blasted dragon is too heavy. Bayzog’s going to die if you don’t get moving. What choice do I have? I’ve done my best.

He slipped Dragon Claw out of his belt where he’d tucked it in earlier.

The dragon’s eye popped open.

CHAPTER 31

Faylan the satyr stood inside her tent, arms crossed over her chest with her bottom lip trembling. Her hooved feet had worn a track in the dirt floor where she’d paced for hours. Her brother, Finlin, was dead. The draykis, all of them, had been wiped out. And she’d have to answer to the High Priestess for it.

“But not just yet,” she whispered, resuming her pacing.

Everything had been going so well! She’d captured Nath Dragon, so she’d thought, and sent him straight to Selene. However, things had gone downward from there. The lock of hair from the man’s head had withered away, leaving doubt whether or not it was Nath Dragon at all. If it wasn’t, then certainly the report from Selene would not be good, but no bad news was forthcoming as of yet. However, she could feel trouble in her hooves.